The Buckeyes are coming off of their most dominant performance of the season and heading into their toughest test so far when they head to Lincoln, Nebraska to take on the Cornhuskers.
Ryan Day made his final weekly media appearances on Thursday, joining 97.1 The Fan for his weekly radio show immediately followed by his typical brief afternoon media availability in the team room.
Updates from what Day – also joined by special teams coordinator Matt Barnes – had to say during his radio show appearance, as well as during his meeting with the local media on Thursday, are below. You can also see what Day had to say in his in-person media availability in the video above.
Ryan Day Radio Show on 97.1 The Fan
On the 42 second-quarter points
- "Any time you can get a short field like we did with turnovers," it makes it easy to score quickly.
- "When you're playing with tempo, things like that can happen in college football"
- Day said they didn't watch a whole lot of film on this game. They watched the first half and then went on to preparation for Nebraska.
On getting second and third string players in the game
- Day mentions that since every game has been a blowout, they haven't played a four-quarter game yet.
- "Obviously this is going to be the first time."
- Day mentions the depth has gotten much better since they've gotten reps.
On Miami's 5-straight points
- "We've talked about when adversity hits, how we're going to handle it for a while."
- Day said he was happy with how the team responded.
- "That was our first bit of adversity, and nobody panicked."
- "We're going to face our first real adversity on Saturday night."
On preparing for crowd noise on the road
- "You could be a foot from somebody and screaming at the top of your lungs and you can't hear."
- Day said much of what they do is hand signals and a silent snap count, but the quarterback does have to verbally communicate sometimes and that's very difficult.
- They pump in crowd noise during practice to prepare for it.
- "It drives Kevin Wilson nuts," Day said, because it's so loud you can't coach between players during practice, so they have to turn it down between plays.
On going tempo
- Day said they like to go at least three plays in a row when they go tempo
- "It depends on the plays, too," Day said, saying they like to go tempo after a run or a quick pass.
- "We like to get up to five or six plays at a time, then we'll talk about subbing in."
- "Even when we don't go 'tempo' we're still no-huddle," Day said, noting that it's always fast.
- "We talk about waves coming on a beach – you just keep hitting them with those plays."
On the reserve defensive linemen
- "Haskell (Garrett) played one of his best games, he was co-player of the game."
- "They're coming along a little bit faster now because they are playing."
- "When they're on the field and making mistakes, that's how they learn."
On Jeff Okudah
- "He's very, very talented."
- "I think now you're seeing the experience he had in the first two seasons."
- Day said Okudah embracing the teaching from Jeff Hafley.
On Chris Olave
- "He's a really good player."
- "He's tough, he works hard, he really pays attention in meetings, he rarely makes mistakes..."
- "Boy, he's making a good run."
On Jameson Williams
- "He is fast."
- "We knew Jameson was fast, that was well documents. We didn't know how tough he was."
- Day said against FAU, he absolutely leveled a linebacker and the very next play hit a safety. He said they showed it to the team in the team room and they all went wild.
- "That's the thing that surprised me. I thought he was just a fast receiver."
On Garrett Wilson
- "He has unbelievable ball skills and body control."
- "How he caught that one, I'm not sure. But we see those things in practice."
- Day said he's really improving as a practice player.
On Binjimen Victor
- "He's got that giant catch radius."
- Day said he thinks Victor has a 7-foot catch radius.
- "When you throw it anywhere in his vacinity, you've got a chance."
On game planning
- Day said he likes to talk to coaches from non-conference teams after the game about what they saw and how they prepared, since they won't play each again for the foreseeable future.
- Luke and I had a great conversation after our game.
On Justin Fields' development
- "It's still to be determined."
- "It's really hard for me to say until we get through that second bye week."
- Day said he still wants to see how he responds when facing real adversity
- "Really in the four games he's only played halves."
- "We haven't even seen what we don't know yet."
On the offensive line not grading out as champions
- Day said it was not just do to a lack of reps.
- "After watching the film, we could have played better."
- "If you don't grade over 80 percent, you're not a champion."
- "We're going to have to play well this week."
On Luke Farrell
- "Luke is one of the unsung heroes to me."
- "He does a lot for us."
- "They have to know everything in the run game, everything in the pass game, they have to know protections..."
- "There's a lot that goes on with the tight ends, and Luke (Farrell) does it at a high level."
On Adrian Martinez
- Day said he loves Adrian Martinez as a person and grew close to him during the recruiting process.
- Ultimately, Ohio State didn't offer because he was injured and couldn't throw during his senior year and Day was never able to see him throw in person.
- "It was hard, because we just didn't know."
- "When you don't see a quarterback throw live, it's really dangerous."
- "He's great with his feet, really athletic, strong and accurate throwing the football."
- "The more he plays, the better he's going to be. He played as a true freshman last year."
On Nebraska's defensive line
- "They big and strong. They're powerful guys."
- "They're very athletic. They move, and they do a good job."
- "We've got a challenge there."
On going on the road
- Day said when you're a team like Ohio State, you know you're always going to get every team's best shot, especially when you go on the road.
- "When you consider yourself a heavyweight champ, you've gotta bring it every week because everyone's trying to knock you out."
- "Our guys are kind of show-offs, they like this kind of stuff."
On open tryouts
- There are 85 guys on scholarship and about 125 guys total, so all the rest are walk ons.
- They usually do tryouts during the spring.
- A lot of the walk-ons are preferred walk-ons, who were recruited as walk ons.
- "They're a huge part of the program."
- "Everybody has a role on the team, and nobody is more important than anyone else."
Special Teams Coordinator Matt Barnes
On punt returns
- "You're looking for the right pitch to hit."
- "You can't return them all for a touchdown, unfortunately."
- Barnes said the punt block and punt return work together.
On trying different punt returners
- "We've got so many talented people on our roster."
- "We want to make sure, at the very least, you hold on to the football."
- "We've got some dynamic guys."
On Drue Chrisman
- "How he does on the field is just a cross section of how he lives his life."
- "He's as mentally tough an individual as I've ever been around."
On coaching special teams
- Barnes said the culture of special teamers is "unlike anything I've ever been around."
- "They get the importance of it and it's not too hard of a sell."
- Barnes likes to highlight the similarities between special teams and offense and defense, saying he could talk about the crossover all day.
- "They're very serious about their craft. You never have to motivate them."
Press Conference With Local Media
- On Mike Yurcich's comments about dressing 122 players before the Miami (Ohio) game: "Mike has a lot of juice. That one came kind of out of nowhere."
- Day says Adrian Martinez has a similar skillset to Justin Fields.
- He says the offensive line needs to be better at finishing and in pass protection which led to none of them grading out as champions in the game against the RedHawks.
- On what Gunnar Hoak needs to do to get his black stripe removed: "Just to keep learning the offense and practice at a high level and take meetings to the field." He says he has flashed at times but needs to continue picking up the whole offense.
- Day says Garrett Wilson and Jameson Williams are "building depth." It's hard to compare them to Chris Olave because Olave's breakout came at the end of his freshmen season. Are they ahead of Olave? "I don't think so, no."
- He says he's "very fortunate" to have this job in a program that was built well by Urban Meyer. "But with that comes great expectations."
- Day says there has to be a gradual ramp up to the game when it doesn't kick off until the night. He doesn't want everybody sitting in their beds all day, but he doesn't want to wear anybody out.
- Being on the road and handling adversity will be difficult, he says.
- "When you're playing with tempo, you know that's coming down the tube." So Ohio State conditioned more, ran more plays and practiced at a faster tempo.
- Day says Garrett Wilson "made a statement" with his 52-yard return that he wants to be a punt returner.
- He says Baron Browning's improvement has been due to his maturity and understanding of how he fits into the defense.
